


Cubby

by teasmudge, velvetmeridian



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - Elementary School, Banter, Crushes, Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, School games, Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 08:27:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teasmudge/pseuds/teasmudge, https://archiveofourown.org/users/velvetmeridian/pseuds/velvetmeridian
Summary: Mr Agni's fourth grade class does not fuck around.(A series of dribble drabbles and accompanying illustrations).





	Cubby

**Author's Note:**

> Did you ever dress up for Halloween? If you said no, how do you feel about Halloween Pizza Parties?
> 
> And demons.
> 
> Look at the art that VM created [here.](https://teasmudge.tumblr.com/post/186593549265/cubby-the-drabbles-youre-not-much-of-an-imp/)
> 
> (Created for the demonicsebacielprompts event for July 2019)

Mr Agni, ever the teacher, was much too affable to opt-out of Halloween; which was why it was no wonder that today, all of his students were wide-eyed and cheery too. 

Because Mr Agni was such a fun teacher, he postponed today’s trigonometry test to throw his class a spooky pizza party. It was only fair that he took a moment before they were too busy having fun, to embarrass his students a little bit by oohing and aahing at how charming all of their costumes were.

He gave Alois a high five, of which the student almost refused, for showing up with an upside-down fishbowl on his head. It was so cool, said Mr Agni, who wondered how the boy had managed to make it look like the inside was glittering with phosphorus liquid. 

Ranmao didn’t say anything when her teacher looked over, but it was okay, Mr Agni already knew her deal, so he made a mediocre ninja stance instead. It didn’t make her smile, but she did draw out a few rubber shurikens from the sleeves of her costume, and that was good enough for him.

Next to her, sat a scheming boy.

“Sebastian, you make a very convincing monster, I am most impressed.” Mr Agni used his entire face to speak to people. His eyes were kind, impactfully so, especially because he made a point to look at people whenever they spoke back.

“I’m a demon,” Sebastian told his teacher. Unimpressed, because he’d been feeling rather semantic and didn’t feel as though he had any convincing to do. 

A shame, because just as Mr Agni was about to correct himself, there was a commotion. From somewhere else: a tiny grumble.

“Oh! It looks like there are not just one, but two little demons.” The teacher became ecstatic at the thought. So ecstatic, in fact, that he asked his students to behave while he left for a moment to fetch a surprise, there was a salver of haunted sweets in the staff room that needed attending to. 

Sebastian didn’t listen. Instead, he lunged his head out, suddenly bewildered, in search of the imposter. How could he not have known that there was another demon in his midst? Perhaps he even felt a little tingly and red because he sort of wanted to be the only one. The culprit donned two little horns amongst a mop of stringy silver, certainly demon. A wispy tail came around to his frilly front; it seemed as though the boy was holding on to it for whatever reason, Sebastian did not know. He had never given a shit about that kid, at least not until today. Ciel was small, and sickly, and not at all a concern. This didn’t stop him, however, from approaching the scoundrel of a boy. 

There were all sorts of authorities to assert. The first being that Sebastian was bigger. And better, in almost every way, of course. It wasn’t good enough for him, knowing things simply. Sebastian knew that he was an intimidating child, sure. But what he really liked, were the look on other people’s faces; blinks of meekness. Ones that showed him that they knew it too.

Sebastian got too close and touched all over. Tugged at the little horns atop the other boy’s head and made the hair there all sorts of flouncy. Ciel’s collar was puffy and very high, and Sebastian couldn’t help but tighten the ribbon that tied around the boy’s neck. His ministrations were rough, especially when he grabbed hold of the slinky tail attached to Ciel’s corduroys and pulled really hard. The boy’s obvious fluster did not deter Sebastian, not one bit. He folded the tail; swiggled it around a couple of his digits before making it swish all about. Sebastian wasn’t just taller, he straight up loomed over the littler demon. And his rufflings were boorish, and noxious, and they didn’t stop. 

Ciel tinged a very bright shade of pink, it didn’t matter much that Sebastian’s behaviour was alarming and careless, it was the scrutiny of his stare that made the boy shake in place: judgement was grosser than a yank on the bum.

Before anything else, Ciel was shy. He had many more things to worry about before allowing himself to become annoyed. How was he supposed to stand, let alone control his freakish breath under such a spotlight? He was happy to be short, as long as it meant that his existence took up the least amount of space as possible. But Sebastian was a bulldozer, he would never win against him. Dressing up was a stupid idea, he should’ve never let his brother talk him into it, even if he did like the feel of his floppy wings. 

And where was his brother now, anyway? Was this behemoth of a boy about to bully him for showing up the way that he did? It’s not like they even looked the same. Sebastian looked shadowed and scary. And Ciel looked like a muffin with fangs, hardly worth the salt. So what was he meant to do now? He hoped that Mr Agni would come back soon, because the only thing that he did know to do in situations like these, aside from cry, was twiddle his feet into the floor and try his very best to not cry.

More grabbing.

“You’re not much of an imp,” Sebastian’s breath was hesitant, letting Ciel know that he was barely acceptable of such an offer, “but I will let you be my friend if you want.” 

Ciel’s face had nearly turned purple from all of the nervousness that he had been swallowing. His skin wasn’t milky enough to soothe the sting of Sebastian’s backhanded offer.

“Only if you agree to stop wrinkling my clothes.” Sebastian had never heard Ciel’s voice, not really. It was so timid, and it mixed weirdly with the audacity of his words, but it was balky nonetheless, like a tightrope with wobbly knees. Sebastian agreed almost instantly and fakely bowed like a servant, hoping that it would make Ciel laugh. It didn’t. Instead, it made the bone of his shoulders bloat up like floaties. That’s fine, Sebastian could play along, and he did, by obnoxiously primping Ciel’s shirt flat. One looked down while the other looked up and they caught each other’s eyes for the very first time. A mirth, simple and naive, frolicked around them as Sebastian pretended to be Ciel’s demonic butler. From then on, it would be their little secret.

“Short people are so bossy,” coaxed a smirking Sebastian, wanting to know what his little friend might say to that. 

From across the room, Grelle scoffed so hard that a few of the leaves on her cape wilted from stress. She had long since tuned out of William’s nonsense to eavesdrop on her peers. Sebastian looked just as good in goolish feathers and black stuff as he normally did. It took less than an instant for her to infuriate herself with the sight of Ciel beckoning Sebastian’s attention. And they were touching, too. 

I mean really, said the inside of Grelle’s schoolgirl mind, how dare he show up to a pizza party after being absent for so long? He might as well just drop dead.

Grelle never bothered excusing herself, she was too red; too caught up inside the tangles of her trifled fury. So naturally, she stomped through the party, all the way over to the source of her worries, Sebastian’s hand on Ciel’s irritatingly chubby head. 

She was still looking at the way that the boy’s hair shivered weirdly against her crush’s fingers when she burped the words out of her mouth. “Sebustiooon!” And then she went serious, “are you really befriending invalids now?” 

When Sebastian didn’t respond she kept going, unbothered to wait for Ciel to stop coughing up his sudden stunt of breath, looking straight into his leathery eyepatch. And it was rude, like staring at someone’s pimple.

“Already in the fourth grade and you don’t even know how to breathe yet, it’s pretty pathetic, even for you.” It was harsh, even for her. True to her costume, she really had poisoned him. It was evident, the beryl look on his puffy face proved it. His eyes were struggling, on the brink of long-awaited tears. And even though one of them remained covered, you could just tell from the way that his cheeks looked: all streaky and rosy with feeling. The insult had hurt him, sort of like a bee sting; the initial intrusion was nothing in comparison to the way that the toxin settled into the skin. For a moment, all was foreign. Why had Sebastian stopped frothing with his tail? And then it felt too real, so he cried, snot-nosed and everything.

No, that just wouldn’t do.

Sebastian made a face. A real, demon’s face, one that he sent slithering toward Grelle like a viper. It wrapped around the back of her neck and bulged into the curve of her spine so that it could freeze her in place. So that she could see it clearly.

All at once, he reigned it back in. Quick, and to the point, because he wasn’t about to make that big of a scene over some crybaby wimp boy.

“Careful crazypants, you might not want to mess with Ciel, he’s the real demon. Even taught me how to make that face.”

Grelle paled. She’d never seen such a treacherous thing. Neither had Ciel, but she was whole and mostly unbroken, and unlike her, he knew nasty. Knew it well enough to leash it; to use it to his advantage. Which was why he decided to pull himself together, even used his sleeve to swipe at the mess on his face, not like it helped any, though it did make a point. Sebastian liked it, watching Ciel’s eye glaze over and frost like that, wondering how such a little pooch might bite back.

“Green.” He gestured to her outfit as if there was a bad taste in his mouth, “what a colour.” And then he laughed widely. Strangely. Could feel the leftovers of his tears pooling at the corners of his sticky smile. 

“It suits you.”

The rest went unsaid because their teacher came back from the staff room-- abrupt as ever, holding a massive tray of assorted cupcakes. Since Agni had rearranged all of their desks into a bunch of little knots around the room, the students could chat, and snack, and play games. He asked them to take their seats, lest they mob him, and it was fun because they could sit wherever they wanted. Not that it mattered to Ciel, he’d sit with his brother and Elizabeth anyway, but he did want a cupcake. The chocolate one, with the purple frosting and googly eyes. His brother looked at Grelle suspiciously when he passed by to latch onto Ciel and had noticed the pitiful look on her face. Before they walked away, he whispered something into Ciel’s ear, which was still ringing with juvenile adrenaline, and whatever he said made both brothers giggle-nod as they feathered away. Sebastian turned with a devilish grin, one that he carried with him all the way over to his spot, a dust of puerile hanging above the air.

The pinnacle of the afternoon, however, took place not long after Pharoah Soma, dressed in too much gold, stood up and shut off the lights. 

“Heads down, thumbs up... In the dark!” said the teacher's pet, jazz hands. 

Everyone cheered when Mr Agni agreed, wiggling in their seats, all crumby with sweets, and lowered their heads. For the first round, seven choosers tried to be as sneaky as possible. Ciel wasn’t surprised when he felt a poke on his thumb, not after Elizabeth had volunteered herself as chooser, but it did make his tummy do a thing anyway. She gave herself away with that sunny smile, the one reserved for making his twin brother jealous. When it was his turn to guess who might’ve picked him, he whispered his cousin’s name directly to the floor, because being shy was much safer than being himself. 

“You caught me!” Elizabeth patronized, grabbing hold of the poof on her tutu and curtsying, just like a real princess. 

It embarrassed Ciel. Made him want to implode unto himself. Not that he was particularly happy to actually participate in silly games, but he shuffled his way to the front of the class to have a turn as chooser anyway, thankful for his teacher, who ushered him forward in order to end the awkwardness of his cousin’s exchange. 

Bard guessed correctly when it was his turn, too. Meyrin got as red as her hair wherever Bard was concerned, so it was a likely answer. He joined Ciel at the front of the class, all grin and no bite and Ciel had to look over to his brother for confidence.

“You boring little devil, I already know who you’re going to pick!” He pressed a gloved finger to Ciel’s shoulder and gestured to the other head of silver.

When it was time for the second round, Ciel quickly realized, no thanks to Bard, that he didn’t want to choose the obvious. He didn’t like this game, but he did like games. And what he liked most about games, was winning them. So he blacklisted his twin’s side of the room altogether and looked somewhere new. 

Sebastian’s hair made a glossy mess atop his desk. His thumb was out, and even in the fuzziness of the dark, Ciel could make out the blackness of his claws. The little demon approached as softly as he could, and once he got close enough, he used both of his hands to press Sebastian’s sharp thumb into his tightened fist. And then he went back to the chalkboard, relieved that the lack of light hid his blush. When everyone else raised their heads, Ciel really did try his best to avoid making any eye contact with Sebastian, he didn’t want to give himself away. But he couldn’t help himself, he just had to look over there; toward the tall boy.

Sebastian wasn’t looking at him though, he was sharing smirks with his entourage, Bard. 

“Alright, rounds’ up, stand if your thumb was pressed.” Agni moderated from behind a mouthful of candy corn. 

That was when laughter erupted because Finny, who wore a massive sheet over his head, stood up. He was dressed as a billowing ghost, truth is that he couldn’t afford a proper costume. But he was high spirited anyway, even asked everyone to call him Finny the Ghost for the day. You know, like Jasper the Ghost? 

It didn’t matter that they were playing in the dark, everyone could see the cranium sized dick that had been graffitied to the back of Finny’s outfit. 

Finny, the boy with a dick on his head: 

Dick head.

Turns out that Bard had sneakily drawn it on him during their turn just now. What type of person doesn’t notice a sharpie against their skull? By Bard no less, an ape. Apparently Finny, who began hysterically crying. And who could blame him, really? 

The lights came back on and the game was ruined, and it pissed Ciel off because he wanted to keep playing. Wanted to see who Sebastian would have guessed. While their teacher handled the situation, Ciel snuck away to the cubby closet. This was not to say that Mr Agni didn’t notice, he did. But he knew that commotion never sat very well with the littlest Phantomhive, and currently, he had other worries. A worry with hairy testicles, so it would seem. He noticed Sebastian follow behind the boy like a puppy, too.

Sebastian looped around the corner to find the little demon fiddling with his inhaler and allowed the sound from the classroom to dissipate entirely. The cubbies stacked pretty tall, taller than him, and much taller than Ciel, which was the first thing that Sebastian had noticed. 

“Demons don’t eat air, stupid. They eat souls. What are you doing?” Sebastian teased and stood in front of where Ciel leaned against so that he could step on his dangled shoelaces and maybe even undo them a little bit.

Ciel had to bend his neck to really look at Sebastian this way and it made his cheeks huff. 

“You know, I’m not actually a demon.” Ciel took a puff through his puffer as if it were cool. In any other setting, it could’ve been the drag of a cigarette. He went ahead and jittered at horns on his head, revealing the headband there in order to prove his point, and messed it all up. Sebastian fixed it immediately. Ciel could tell that his new friend’s touches weren’t staunchy like before, and he thought that maybe Sebastian just always wanted things to look right. 

“You’re plenty diabolical. But hey, I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Okay. Then I won’t tell anybody about your savagery.” Ciel referred to the earlier bulging of his face as Sebastian took a mental note of the way that the other boy’s lips sometimes curled when he spoke.

The taller boy nodded at the shorter boy in agreement with a quirk of his mouth.

“But first,” Ciel shook as he spoke, “I have to make sure that you’re telling the truth.”

Sebastian’s eyes sparked copper. “And how will y-”

Ciel brought his hand up, the one not sweating all over his inhaler, and got shy again for interrupting. He recovered from his flushy flutter only sort of, by scrunching his nose and sticking out his pinky. 

“Pinky Swear?”

Sebastian laughed at him before realizing that the boy was being serious. Of course he would do this. He feigned annoyance; crunched his eyebrows together even though he was still grinning like a cat. When he looked down at Ciel’s tiny hand it reminded him of something. 

Eventually, he brought his hand up too, and connected their pinkies.

“Pinky Swear.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [Chromehoplite](https://chromehoplite.tumblr.com/)  
> for da beta. <3
> 
> A massive thank you to the lovely [Rose](https://scarlet-la-rose.tumblr.com)  
> for surprising me with the proper input code for the art with which the story was created for.
> 
> Did you giggle-nod too? Make us blush by hugging the kudos button! 
> 
> Come talk to us on tumblr! [Smudgy](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/teasmudge/) and @velvetmeridian.


End file.
